Our club has 4 of them and I own one personally. Everyone complains about the receiver sensitivity as compared to the GE Mastr IIs. Well most GE IIs HAVE a pre amp built into them. Take it out and you have the same sensitivity of the Kenwood. I built some 10 db pre amps and put them between the receiver input and the duplexers. Work great, same sensitivity as the GE IIs. I wouldn't put a pre amp up near an antenna for love or money. Just asking for it to be blown out as I've seen time and time again. Plus why amplify noise before the duplexers? Let the duplexers filter out some of the noise and protect the pre amp. We've had the pre amps and TRK-750's in service about 2 years with no issues. Set at 30 watts input to the duplexers. Runs just fine and no heat issue. Built in mini controller is nice. We had trouble with a out board controller and switched to the internal one without loss of service. May not be the best out there but, they get the job done for us.

After recommendations from 2 people who have installed/and used the vhf version our club bought one. Then we bought 2 more to replace our aging Aerotrons. They have been in use daily for years now and never miss a beat. I have program'd all 3. I will agree that the sensitivity could be better. Could use a little more fan, but we have never had one go down. Price is very reasonable, and would buy one again.

Got this TKR 750 K2 version last Oct 2013 and been on the air since with no problems at all. The only negative thing I found was that the audio level on the discriminator is extremely low. I had to modify the CAT 700 to get the audio up to where it should be. As for sensitivty I was disappointed. My GE Mastr II was MUCH better. .2 for 20 db verses the Kenwood that was a .4! And yes, I checked the alignment and it was correct. I wound up using an Angle Linear GasFet preamp and a preselector to get it back up where it needed to be. Otherwise it is a very nice machine. Software is very easy to use and a breeze to program. Audio is really good also.

We use these repeaters in commercial radio sites. They are great ! Excellent performance, even with less than optimal filtration... Programmation is also a charm. You can set up multiples CTCSS/CDCSS. Audio/control signals are easily accessible via a DB25-F connector. Some I/O's are user configurable.

Only one weak point: The suggested KPS-15 switching power supply is a toaster. Do not use it. However, since the TKR runs on 13,8 volts, it is easy to use just any heavy-duty power supply.

We have 7 of these repeaters on our linked repeater system, they have been operating flawlessly for 5 years or so. The system is sometimes keyed up for hours on end, with no problems. Audio is fantastic, and it is easy to implement an external controller or accessory.

We have 2 others as stand alone repeaters, and 2 of the TKR-850. They seem as reliable. We have ours set to 25 watts, since they can run nearly constantly in our type of link service. Kenwood rates them at 25 watts continuous, and that seems accurate.

We purchased the 136-150 models, but the higher split should work fine in the ham bands. As others have noted, about the only alignment required is the helical front end in the RX. That takes about 5 minutes to do, but should be done for best sensitivity.

These have a built in DTMF controller, which can be configured to control internal functions, or drive external accessories or relays.

Dealer cost (currently) on these units is just under $1000, so if you find a ham-friendly Kenwood dealer, you might be able to get it for near that price, that's what we do. We pay 10% over cost.

In the front part of the rec there are 5 coils you have to tune with a signal gen. Yes my kenwood was on 155 mhz area. When I was done programing the repeater I checked the rec and it was 1.5uv !wow!.
Then I retuned the coils and got it down to .20uv.
Kenwood makes a great repeater. 73,s KC9GMH
kc9gmh15@yahoo.com

Just a note regarding the review by KC9GMH, I had a 146- split TKR750 originally on 146.715 (about .24uV) and we refarmed some pairs and when I moved it down to 145.45, sensitivity deteriorated markedly (abt .40uV), put an ARR preamp and brought it back up to speed. Just want to let folks know that hams may be better off getting the low split K2 version, just FYI . . .

The KENWOOD repeater is a 146-174 type and with the software i was able to put it down at 145.230 and tuned the radio. Works great with my cat-200 repeater controller,great audio also.The repeater puts out 35 watts. The rec goes down to .20uv without a preamp.If anyone has a question on the programing on a kenwood tkr-750 or 850 let me know at kc9gmh15@yahoo.com
73's
kc9gmh

We have 5 TKR-750's and 4 TKR-850's in two linked repeater networks. All rptrs are 100%, never had to touch them. The Kenwood software is excellent. The 25 pin connector gives you everything you need. We use the Arcom RC210 controllers for all and control the outbound CTCSS tone to drop with inbound tone for simplex like use. The VHF RX's will hear down in the low .20's uV stock! The UHF's are around spec at .35 uV. The only thing I can fault the Kenwood's on is that the audio could pass a little more bass. Clean, crisp audio otherwise. For abt $1600 with the controller, you can't go wrong - this is from a guy who loved to spend hours and hours tinkering with old MastrII's. No more :-)

We have had the Kenwood TKR-750 on the air for about 18 months and have not had any problems. Programmed repeater the on the bench and installed on site it has worked great without any changes. I agree the comment about purchasing the Kenwood TKR-750 instead of building a repeater from parts.